Save the P.O.etry

Save the P.O.etry—

A National Crusade to save the Post Office through poetry. As everyone knows from recent headlines in the news, the Post Office is in serious trouble, and many Post Offices are threatened with closure or radical cutbacks in hours and service. The Post Office has long been a center of the sense of place and community in American towns and villages. One of the primary factors in the current Post Office crisis is identified as the drastic decline in the use of First Class Mail due to the overwhelming use of e-mail.

         What you can do to help save the P.O.—1) send at least ten people a copy of a poem through the real mail, using actual stamps purchased at an actual Post Office; 2) ask at least ten people to snail-mail a poem to at least ten other people. Act now to save the P.O.—do the math: if you send 10 copies of your favorite poem (or maybe one you’ve written to help save the P.O.) and all the people you send the poem to also do the same, the numbers spiral, and soon through many individual purchases of less than $5 worth of stamps, millions of dollars will pour into the P.O. treasury.

“Poetry makes nothing happen.”—W. H. Auden

          But another poet has written:

“Poetry can make things happen.”—H. R. Stoneback

          We encourage teachers at all levels to invite the participation of their students in this campaign. Post this announcement in libraries. Visit a Post Office, buy some stamps, and mail a poem and a copy of this information sheet to 10 (or 50!) people.

          This nationwide crusade to save the Post Office through mailing poems is based in New Paltz, New York. The campaign will receive national attention at the American Literature Association Conference in New Orleans in October 2012 and at the SAMLA Convention in Durham, NC in November 2012.

          If you would like to report on your role in the SAVE the P.O.etry Crusade, you may e-mail us at: deshymnagistes@gmail.com or visit us at deshymnagistes.blogspot.com